Movies: The trashy, the obscure and the great

Over the past couple weeks, I’ve indulged in the Hellraiser movies, which is to say, the first eight in the series. There is a ninth one that was released last year, but not only have I not seen it, I haven’t heard good things; apparently, it was mainly made to keep the franchise rights going. Which is not to say that the first eight are all gems, but they are all reasonably entertaining.

When I say that I watched the eight movies over a couple weeks, that doesn’t mean I watched one, then the next one a couple days later. I watched these in bunches, including four in a single day, and its to the credit of the series that I could do this. Some movie series just rehash the same basic story time and again (such as the Friday the 13th or Halloween movies or even, going way back, Universal’s old Mummy movies: of the five, four are almost identical in plot and structure). What the Hellraiser series offers is a different type of monster than many horror films and a mythology (however inconsistently applied) that goes with it.

The basic story goes back to a novella by Clive Barker, once one of the great names in horror fiction (his recent work is more sporadic in quality and quantity). The movies deal with a puzzle box called the Lament Configuration which, when solved, opens a gateway to Hell. Hell turns out to be an S&M paradise of sorts, populated by beings known as Cenobites who love to torture hapless souls. The lead Cenobite is never named in the movie, but is nicknamed Pinhead in the credits; in fact, none of the Cenobites bear any real names.

As is typical in my posts, I may include some spoilers.

In the original movie, Hellraiser, the Cenobites have a lesser role. It instead focuses on Frank, a nasty guy whose yearnings for exotic pleasures leads him to the Lament Configuration which drags him to Hell. Frank’s clever, however, and figures on a way to escape with the assistance of his brother Larry’s wife (Julia) and some copious amounts of human blood. The brother is played by Andrew Robinson, best known as the crazy killer Scorpio in Dirty Harry; here, he’s a much nicer guy, which will not lead to good things. The heroine of the story is Kirsty (Ashley Laurence), Larry’s college-age daughter, who will summon the Cenobites inadvertently and use them to stop Frank.

Even this first movie is imperfect, but it is a fun film with an original concept, especially for the 1980s, a relatively low era for horror quality, with an overabundance of slasher flicks. It definitely has a 1980s look to it, which makes it seem dated. And if you don’t like gore, you should avoid this whole franchise, which often deals with people being flayed and mutilated.

Hellbound: Hellraiser II follows directly after the first movie, with Kirsty locked up in an insane asylum and no one believing her story. Well, no one except the head psychiatrist, an evil man who knows all about the magic box. He brings back Julia from the dead while Kirsty attempts to rescue her father from Hell, little knowing that it’s a trap by Frank. The Cenobites play a bigger role in this one, and it’s revealed that they were once humans. Though the movie ends with the Cenobites, including Pinhead, apparently dead, you can’t keep a good demon down.

In Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth, Pinhead is back and, as the title says, interested in moving out of the underworld. Somehow trapped in a strange statue, he is resurrected by a twisted nightclub owner. It can be noted that although Pinhead has become the common monster in these movies, there is typically always a human villain who is typically the actual center of the story; in fact, only in this movie and the next one does Pinhead take on true “bad guy” status and kill people who did not fiddle with the box. As in the majority of movies, this one features a woman as the lead “good guy”, in this case a reported played by Terry Farrell (pre-Deep Space Nine).

The fourth movie, Hellraiser: Bloodline, is actually a collection of three related stories. The framing story takes place in the future where on a space station a man has summoned Pinhead, using a robot to open the Lament Configuration. It turns out he’s the descendant of the original designer. His story, taking place in pre-Revolution France, deals with the summoning of a demon princess and the havoc that results. The other story deals with a modern-day descendant who becomes targeted by Pinhead and company due to his ancestor. Then it’s back to the future where the final descendant intends on destroying Pinhead using a “reverse” box.

At this point, halfway through the Hellraiser 8, it’s a good point to break. This will continue in the next post.